"Why does it happen like this?". Consulting with users and providers prior to an evaluation of services for children with life-limiting conditions and their families

Background: Children with life-limiting conditions and their families have complex needs. Evaluations must consider their views and perspectives to ensure care is relevant, appropriate and acceptable. Aims: We consulted with children, young people, their parents and local professionals to gain a more informed picture of issues affecting them prior to preparing a bid to evaluate services in the area. Design: Multiple methods included focus groups, face-to-face and telephone interviews and participatory activities. Recordings and products from activities were analysed for content to identify areas of relevance and concern. Results: An overarching theme from parents was “Why does it happen like this?” Services did not seem designed to meet their needs. Whilst children and young people expressed ideas related to quality of environment,services and social life, professionals focused on ways of meeting the families’ needs. The theme that linked families’ concerns with those of professionals was ‘assessing individual needs’. Two questions to be addressed by the evaluation are: (1) to what extent are services designed to meet the needs of children and families, and (2) to what extent are children, young people and their families consulted about what they need? Conclusion: Consultations with families and service providers encouraged us to continue their involvement as partners in the evaluatio

Biofuels for transportation sustainability

The Worldwatch Institute has examined key sustainability issues and how to deal with them. The aim was to have biofuels taken seriously at a time when the focus was firmly on fossil fuels and when renewable forms of energy were not seen as likely to make significant contributions. Biofuels are not guaranteed to be green or sustainable or will solve everything problem from energy-security to poverty to climate change unless we are deliberate in how we develop them

Should “acculturation” be a variable in health research? A critical review of research on US Hispanics

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2003.12.00

Temperature-Sensitive and Circadian Oscillators of Neurospora crassa Share Components

In Neurospora crassa, the interactions between products of the frequency (frq), frequency-interacting RNA helicase (frh), white collar-1 (wc-1), and white collar-2 (wc-2) genes establish a molecular circadian clockwork, called the FRQ-WC-Oscillator (FWO), which is required for the generation of molecular and overt circadian rhythmicity. In strains carrying nonfunctional frq alleles, circadian rhythms in asexual spore development (conidiation) are abolished in constant conditions, yet conidiation remains rhythmic in temperature cycles. Certain characteristics of these temperature-synchronized rhythms have been attributed to the activity of a FRQ-less oscillator (FLO). The molecular components of this FLO are as yet unknown. To test whether the FLO depends on other circadian clock components, we created a strain that carries deletions in the frq, wc-1, wc-2, and vivid (vvd) genes. Conidiation in this ΔFWO strain was still synchronized to cyclic temperature programs, but temperature-induced rhythmicity was distinct from that seen in single frq knockout strains. These results and other evidence presented indicate that components of the FWO are part of the temperature-induced FLO

Employment as a Health Determinant for Working-age, Dually-eligible People with Disabilities

Background: Individuals with disabilities are a health disparity population with high rates of risk factors, lower overall health status, and greater health care costs. The interacting effect of employment, health and disability has not been reported in the research. Objective: This study examined the relationship of employment to health and quality of life among people with disabilities. Methods: Self-reported survey data and secondary claims data analyses of 810 Kansans ages 18 to 64 with disabilities who were dually-eligible for Medicare and Medicaid; 49% were employed, with 94% working less than 40 hours per week. Statistical analyses included ANOVA for differences between the employed and unemployed groups’ health status, risk scores, and disease burdens; chi-square analyses for differences in prevalence of health risk behaviors and differences in quality of life by employment status; and logistic regression with health status measures to determine factors associated with higher than average physical and mental health status. Results: Findings indicated participants with any level of paid employment had significantly lower rates of smoking and better quality of life; self-reported health status was significantly higher, while per person per month Medicaid expenditures were less. Employment, even at low levels, was associated with better health and health behaviors as well as lower costs. Participants reported being discouraged from working by medical professionals and federal disability policies. Conclusions: Although cause-effect cannot be established from this study, findings strongly support changes to provider practices and federal disability policy to support employment at all levels for people with disabilities.Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KHPA2007-055), U.S. Department of Education, NIDRR grant number H133G10082-1

Root Zone of the Bernardston Nappe and the Brennan Hill Thrust Involuted by Backfolds and Gneiss Domes in the Mount Grace Area, North-Central Massachusetts

Guidebook for field trips in southwestern New Hampshire, southeastern Vermont, and north-central Massachusetts: New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, 80th annual meeting, October 14, 15 and 16, 1988, Keene, New Hampshire: Trip C-

Comprehensive Modelling of the Neurospora Circadian Clock and Its Temperature Compensation

Circadian clocks provide an internal measure of external time allowing organisms to anticipate and exploit predictable daily changes in the environment. Rhythms driven by circadian clocks have a temperature compensated periodicity of approximately 24 hours that persists in constant conditions and can be reset by environmental time cues. Computational modelling has aided our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of circadian clocks, nevertheless it remains a major challenge to integrate the large number of clock components and their interactions into a single, comprehensive model that is able to account for the full breadth of clock phenotypes. Here we present a comprehensive dynamic model of the Neurospora crassa circadian clock that incorporates its key components and their transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation. The model accounts for a wide range of clock characteristics including: a periodicity of 21.6 hours, persistent oscillation in constant conditions, arrhythmicity in constant light, resetting by brief light pulses, and entrainment to full photoperiods. Crucial components influencing the period and amplitude of oscillations were identified by control analysis. Furthermore, simulations enabled us to propose a mechanism for temperature compensation, which is achieved by simultaneously increasing the translation of frq RNA and decreasing the nuclear import of FRQ protein

A Disclosure About Death Disclosure: Variability in Circulatory Death Determination

Introduction. Circulatory-respiratory death declaration is a common duty of physicians, but little is known about the amount of education and physician practice patterns in completing this examination. Methods. We conducted an online survey of physicians evaluating the rate of formal training and specific examination techniques used in the pronouncement of circulatory-respiratory death. Data, including level of practice, training received in formal death declaration, and examination components were collected. Results. Respondents were attending physicians (52.4%), residents (30.2%), fellows (10.7%), and interns (6.7%). The majority of respondents indicated they had received no formal training in death pronouncement, however, most reported self-perceived competence. When comparing examination components used by our cohort, 95 different examination combinations were used for death pronouncement. Conclusions. Formal training in death pronouncement is uncommon and clinical practice varies. Implementation of formal training and standardization of the examination are necessary to improve physician competence and reliability in death declarations

MOST Observations of the Flare Star AD Leo

We present continuous, high-precision photometric monitoring data with 1 minute cadence of the dM3e flare star AD Leo with the {\it MOST} satellite. We observed 19 flares in 5.8 days, and find a flare frequency distribution that is similar to previous studies. The light curve reveals a sinusoidal modulation with period of $2.23^{+0.36}_{-0.27}$ days that we attribute to the rotation of a stellar spot rotating into and out of view. We see no correlation between the occurrence of flares and rotational phase, indicating that there may be many spots distributed at different longitudes, or possibly that the modulation is caused by varying surface coverage of a large polar spot that is viewed nearly pole-on. The data show no correlation between flare energy and the time since the previous flare. We use these results to reject a simple model in which all magnetic energy is stored in one active region and released only during flares.Comment: 20 Pages, 8 Figures, PASP Accepte